Posts made in January, 2011
Buick Gets in the Game with "Quest for the Keys"
Brand Channel‘s Sheila Shayon wrote a nice post about Big Fuel’s current campaign for Buick. Thanks Sheila!
My favorite quote: “Witness “Quest for the Keys,” which marks Buick’s most innovative social marketing exercise to date.”
Social media scavenging is now yielding ever bigger rewards for brands. Witness “Quest for the Keys,” which marks Buick’s most innovative social marketing exercise to date.
The mobile-centric scavenger hunt rolls out Monday, hiding keys in Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York and Austin, with clues for fans on the brand’s Facebook page and @buick Twitter feed over the next three weeks, culminating in a day of actual scavenger hunting and a final draw in November.
Each city holds a key with a $2,000 cash reward – and the final three winners can choose a Verano, Regal, LaCrosse or Enclave.
“Quest for the Keys” is platform-agnostic and spans the use of Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places for clues.
Big Fuel, whose founder Avi Savar is a brandchannel contributor, was recently hired to handle all of parent General Motors’ social media. The agency devised an Android app that “Features an info screen for your city of choice, a QR code reader for any you might come across along the way to the key, and a Quest Compass to show you how far away you are from the finish.”
With its foray into social gaming, Buick is hoping to skew younger. “The product line is much more tuned to a younger buyer base. It’s now more athletic and sportier. Buick now believes it can catch a younger buyer and they have, but it’s not as young as they hoped so far,” says Chris Cedergren, managing partner with Iceology automotive marketing consultancy, to Mashable.
The campaign was unveiled last week at the North American International Auto Show, coinciding with the unveiling of the Buick Verano, and automatically enrolled anyone who watched the stream on Buick’s FB page or tweeted – enabling them to compete to win the first key.
Read MoreJust Like That, The iPad Is Almost As Big As The Mac
CHART OF THE DAY:
Apple’s iPad business has only been around for 9 months, but it has already generated almost $10 billion in revenue for Apple. Specifically, Apple shipped 14.8 million iPads last year, generating $9.6 billion in revenue. Last quarter alone, it shipped 7.3 million iPads for $4.6 billion in sales.
That’s amazing. And what’s more amazing is that it’s almost the same amount of revenue as Apple’s almost-27-year-old Mac business, which just put in its best quarter ever, generating $5.4 billion in revenue.
But perhaps what’s most remarkable is how fast Apple is still growing overall. At $26.7 billion in sales last quarter, Apple still grew 71% year-over-year. Crazy.
Big Fuel Opens Detroit Office
Chrissie Thompson from the Detroit Free Press recently covered Big Fuel’s expansion into Detroit.
Read MoreBig Fuel, a 7-year-old New York social-media agency, has chosen Detroit for its first satellite office, becoming the latest advertising agency to follow General Motors marketing chief Joel Ewanick’s encouragement to put employees in downtown Detroit.
The firm plans to employ about 30 people in Detroit by the end of January in an office that opened last month on the 31st floor of Tower 300 at the Renaissance Center, CEO Avi Savar said.
Eventually, the Detroit office, known internally as Big Fuel Heartland, could employ hundreds in another building. Big Fuel will likely move some of its Midwest accounts, like Chicago-based McDonald’s, to the Detroit office, Savar said. A West Coast office is next, he said.
GM’s New Social Media Marketing Agency Is Staffing Up (btw — that's us)
Todd Wasserman at Mashable recently posted a fun story about Big Fuel and the hyper-growth we have been experiencing.
Read MoreBig Fuel, the New York-based agency that handles all of General Motors’ social media marketing, is opening a Detroit office to service the account and is on a hiring binge.
Avi Savar, the CEO and founder of Big Fuel (pictured), said he has about 15 people on the ground in Detroit right now and is looking to double that number by March. The agency has another 80 people in New York and handles other clients including McDonald’s, Neutrogena and Colgate-Palmolive’s Wisp toothbrush. Savar said he hopes to have a staff of more than 200 by the end of 2011.
About Me
Proud father, devoted husband, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Big Fuel, a full-service marketing and communications company based in New York that takes brands from Content To Commerce.
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